Relatively movable capacitor plates are used in a variety of displacement sensor applications in the prior art. The mechanical design of such devices does not lend itself to fabrication of small rugged low cost sensors because of the mechanical tolerances involved, for example, in the spacing between the plate elements of the capacitor. In addition, providing sufficient responsiveness and sensitivity at low cost becomes more difficult as the parts become smaller. One application in particular which has all of those requirements is down-hole oil well logging where slant drilling requires an inclinometer reading. Prior devices which depend on pendulum movement are relatively inaccurate and fragile. Accelerometer-based devices have the added disadvantage of being relatively expensive.